Nick Spano, newly released from prison: “It’s been an intense seven months”

Nick Spano, the former state senator turned influential lobbyist, spent the past seven months in federal prison, serving his sentence for failing to pay $53,000 in income taxes.

On Tuesday, he was released.

Spano, a Yonkers Republican who was once one of the state senate’s most powerful members, sat down for an interview with The Journal News’ Phil Reisman, where he detailed his routine, his newfound commitment to fitness and his prison job earning 12 cents an hour working in a garage.

“It’s been an intense seven months,” he said over a lunch of grilled chicken salad at the Broadway Diner. “It’s like going from a whirlwind life, going nonstop, to almost having seven months of I call ‘me time.’”

The former longtime state senator pleaded guilty in February 2012 to dodging $53,000 in federal and state income taxes by not reporting income, including a $45,000 commission he received on a real estate deal and rental proceeds from a Yonkers building he owned.

He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and expected to serve 10 months. He has spent less than 8 months in custody so far; the federal Bureau of Prisons lists his “actual or projected” official release date as May 22, 2013.

He was picked up in one of several SUVs that made the 174-mile trek this morning to the Schuylkill prison camp in Minersville, Pa., and reported there July 10. The minimum security satellite camp is adjacent to Schuylkill’s medium security prison, and about 165 miles from Yonkers.

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While in prison, a fit-looking Spano got into shape, working out by lifting weights and lost 37 pounds. He also read 32 books, mostly political, including Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker.”

Spano also took classes and taught one to 27 students on American government. Some of his students recognized him as a public figure.